PAUL KIMPLING
Community organizer, farmer,
U.S. Forest Service employee
Paonia, Colorado
Last year, to celebrate Pride, we hung flags; this year, we’re creating an interactive work of art made from recycled materials, including 4,000 aluminum cans. The rainbow trout is an important species to the North Fork Valley. It has “rainbow” in its name, of course, and it’s beautiful. It’s fun to play off that. Collaborating on a piece like this is exciting because it brings so many different people together. Every Saturday, cutting cans and building the fish is creating a community within the valley that wasn’t here before. It’s about supporting the queer community, uplifting people and bringing magic here. It’s a different thing, being queer in the West — and in a small town — versus being queer in any large city. We’re not always safe. There’s so much weight to the things that we’ve done here. I’m excited to see this 40-foot rainbow trout puppet swim throughout the West.
Luna Anna Archey is HCN’s associate photo editor. She lives in Paonia, Colorado. Follow @la_archey
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This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘It’s about supporting the queer community, uplifting people and bringing magic here’.
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